New publications this month:

DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY AND INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY (BEIS)

Check if you may be eligible for the Boiler Upgrade Scheme from April 2022

Guidance is provided for parties looking to get involved with the boiler upgrade scheme as a recipient of funding or an installer. The scheme will open for grant applications and payments on 23 May 2022.

DEFRA AND RURAL PAYMENTS AGENCY

Sustainable Farming Incentive: full guidance

Guidance has been issued on the Sustainable Farming Incentive, which is one of three environmental schemes introduced under the post-Brexit Agricultural Transition Plan in England.

ENVIRONMENT AGENCY

Check if you need a licence to abstract water

Guidance is provided on activities that do and don’t require a water abstraction licence in England.

Check if you need a licence to impound water

Guidance has been published on when impoundment licences are required in England, including low risk impoundment activities that do not require a licence.

Landfill and deposit for recovery: aftercare and permit surrender

This guidance on surrendering permits to operate landfills and associated aftercare duties has been extended. The update includes further advice on the risk assessment process applicants are expected to follow.

Environment Agency enforcement and sanctions policy

This policy has been updated to reflect the regulator’s approach to applying civil penalties for climate change schemes, including specifically the energy savings opportunity scheme (ESOS).

Updated Standard Rule Permits

The following standard rules permits were published during March 2022:

• SR2021 No 11: Small metal recycling facility (less than 5,000 tonnes a year)
• SR2021 No 12: Vehicle storage, depollution and dismantling (authorised treatment) facility
• SR2021 No 13: storage and mechanical treatment of end-of-life tyres for recovery
• SR2021 No 14: storage and mechanical treatment of waste mattresses for recovery
• SR2021 No 15: storage and mechanical treatment of waste paper, cardboard and plastic for recovery

Corrections were made to the following standard rule permits in March 2022:

• SR2021 No 7: anaerobic digestion facility, including use of the resultant biogas – waste recovery operation
• SR2021 No 8: on-farm anaerobic digestion facility using farm wastes only, including use of the resultant biogas – installations
• SR2021 No 9: on-farm anaerobic digestion facility, including use of the resultant biogas – waste recovery operation

OFFICE FOR ZERO EMISSION VEHICLES

Workplace Charging Scheme Guidance for Charities and Small Accommodation Businesses

The workplace charging scheme provides vouchers for eligible applicants, subsidising the upfront cost of purchasing and installing charge points for electric vehicles. A series of

SCOTTISH ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION AGENCY (SEPA), NATURAL RESOURCES WALES AND DAERA

GPP 3: Use and design of oil separators in surface water drainage systems

This Guidance for Pollution Prevention (GPP) document supersedes the withdrawn Pollution Prevention Guideline PPG3 (Use and design of oil separators in surface water drainage systems).

Guidance is provided on whether oil separators are required. If a separator is required, the GPP provides guidance on the size and type of separator required.

SEPA

Climate change allowances for flood risk assessment in land use planning

This planning guidance has been updated.

WELSH GOVERNMENT

Technical advice note (TAN) 15: development, flooding and coastal erosion

This new planning guidance document will now come into force on 1 June 2023. This document was originally planned for implementation in 1 December 2021 but was suspended.

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, ENVIRONMENT AND RURAL AFFAIRS (DAERA)

Environmental Powers of Entry - Code of Practice

This code of practice aims to ensure that environmental powers of entry are used correctly and consistently.

Man who exposed the public to the public to asbestos receives suspended sentence

A man from Grantham has been sentenced for deceiving the public about his ability to handle asbestos safely and storing it in an unsafe manner.

Between 2017 and 2019  the man acted as the de facto director of Lincs Demolition Ltd. The man secured jobs by marketing himself as a registered asbestos-removal specialist.

The deception was operated across 43 towns and cities across England. After duping customers, waste asbestos was stashed in hired storage containers in Welbourn, Lincolnshire, 200 metres from a school and close to a Girl Guide centre.

The man had told the owners of the storage space that he wanted to keep tools there. When he failed to pay the rent on the containers, the owners forced the locks and were confronted with the asbestos waste.

Once exposed, the man abandoned the storage containers at Welbourn, moving his activities to an unpermitted waste site in Little Hale, near Sleaford. He continued to store asbestos unsafely, posing a risk to public health.

Taking avoidance of costs into consideration, from appropriate staff training to safe storage, Lincs Demolition avoided business costs of at least £50,000.

Breaches

The man pleaded guilty to two counts of operating a waste operation without a permit, contrary to Regulation 12, Regulation 38(1)(a) and Regulation 41(1)(a) of the Environmental Permitting (England & Wales) Regulations 2016.

• Regulation 12 requires that persons do not operate regulated activities, water discharge activities and groundwater activities unless authorised by and in accordance with an environmental permit.
• Regulation 38(1)(a) made it an offence to contravene Regulation 12(1).
• Regulation 41(1)(a) make officers of bodies corporate guilty of offences as well as the body, if this was committed with consent or connivance of an officer or is attributable to neglect on any part of the officer.

The man also pleaded guilty to two counts of keeping or disposing of controlled waste in a manner likely to cause pollution or harm, contrary to Section 33(1)(c), Section 33(6) and Section 157(1) of Environmental Protection Act 1990.

• Section 33(1)(c) states a person shall not treat, keep or dispose of controlled waste in a manner likely to cause pollution of the environment or harm to human health.
• Section 33(6) states a person who contravenes Section 33(1) commits an offence.
• Section 157(1) states that where an offence under the Act is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or was attributable to any neglect on the part of, any director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate or a person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, they will also be guilty of that offence.

Penalty

The man received a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

The man was also told that he must return to Lincoln crown court on 13 June 2022 for consideration of financial orders, including costs due and the potential confiscation of his proceeds of crime.

Suspended prison sentences for two directors who illegally stored waste in Telford

Two men who stored more than 26,000 cubic metres of waste illegally next to the M54 motorway have been prosecuted.

Both men admitted the charge of breaching the environmental permit for the site which was run through a company they were directors of. The company, Greenway Waste Recycling Ltd, is now in administration.

Between 12 October 2016 and 19 January 2017, bales of waste were stockpiled inappropriately on land at Recycling House, Rock Road, Ketley, Telford in Shropshire. This activity was contrary to the environmental permit held. Wastes stored included plastics, wood, metal, paper, and cardboard. This material is referred to as Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) as it was intended for burning as a fuel to produce electricity.

After the company was evicted from the site efforts were made to secure the removal of the abandoned waste by them. Only one load, comprising 26 bales of waste, was removed by the company.

A significant waste fire later took place at the site in April 2021, which led to the M54 being partially closed as well as a number of neighbouring primary schools. An Environment Agency investigation to this fire remains ongoing.

Breach

The illegal waste storage activity was undertaken contrary to Regulation 38(2) of the Environmental Permitting (England & Wales) Regulations 2016:

• Regulation 38(2) make it an offence to fail to comply with or to contravene an environmental permit condition.

Penalty

The two men were sentenced to 8 months imprisonment, suspended for 12 months. They men were ordered to undertake 100 hours of unpaid work and were disqualified from being a company director for 3 years.

The men were also told to pay a total of over £23,000 towards the costs of the prosecution.

Seven figure penalty for multinational alcoholic drinks producer who failed to meet its obligations under the Emissions Trading Scheme

Civil penalty notices totalling over £1.2 million have been applied against the beer and sprit producer Diageo, which owns and operates a large number of Scotch Whisky distilleries.

SEPA initially issued civil penalties of £1,398,911.28 against Diageo after three of their facilities were found to have been operating for more than six years without an EU Emissions Trading Scheme permit. By failing to comply with its obligations under the Emissions Trading Scheme, the company avoided significant

The initial civil penalties were reduced to £1,212,389.78 under appeal.